Keith, the book
by malaccompagne
Summary: *Not finished yet*  Smart and popular high school senior Natalie thinks she has her life figured out, but everything changes when she meets a mysterious boy with nothing to lose.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Characters and ideas/story are not mine. **_**Keith**_** belongs to No Hands Productions and Ron Carlson.**

Keith

_How close is too close?_

Prologue

_Crunch. _

I can feel the movement.

Counting. Anticipating.

Wait until the last second.

Slowly.

Beneath me, the car moves steadily toward the edge of the cliff.

* * *

Chapter 1 (Natalie)

_Beep!Beep!Beep!_

My eyes flash open. It`s like my body knows that it`s time to wake up. Just like I`ve woken up at 5am every day for the past 10 years.

I get up and look around my room. It`s not perfect, but it`s not messy either. My room hasn`t changed in 10 years, too. Across the hall is the same bathroom that I`ve brushed my teeth in every day of my life. I look at myself in the mirror. My face is reflected in it, the blonde hair that I`ve grown long, the green eyes that change colour in different lights. The face that`s been mine for 17 years.

I pull on my running shoes, the new ones that my father bought me after I won that last match on Wednesday, even though I probably have 10 pairs scattered in my closet, and lace them up. Packing my school bag with my planner and my chemistry homework, and then picking up my racket and putting it in its bag, I head out to my car.

I drive out, alone, to the empty tennis courts and start to warm up. I start practicing my serves, one ball over the net after another, until it's 7:30 AM and I have to get to school. At school, I cross off "tennis practice" on my planner. I have a French test next, and I breeze through it, finishing in about 45 minutes. I look around at my classmates, I'm the only one done, and no one's even close to finishing yet. It's not unusual for that to happen, in fact, it's expected of me. I'm Natalie Anderson. I'm going to University next year, and I'm going to become a doctor. I've known this since the second grade.

I hand in my test and I leave class. I sit underneath my favourite tree in the middle of campus, writing an essay I have due for English next week. I look up, towards the field, where the sound of boy's laughter is coming from. Some boys are kicking around a soccer ball. It's easy to see who's the best at it, the boy with the long, dark hair, who takes the ball and dodges the other player. He's really cute.

Chapter 2 (Keith)

_Crack._ The pool ball falls into the pocket. I'm getting better at this, all this _bonding_ time with Al has really improved my game.

"Been thinkin' 'bout what you said about that concrete goal," I tell him as I walk around the table for my next shot. _Crack_.

"And?" he prompts.

"I think I've nailed it!" I say, aiming. "I feel really good about this one,"

"Lay it on me," he says.

"It's a girl," I reply, smiling. He's going to love this one.

"Cool. What's she like?" he says enthusiastically. I walk around him to take my next shot, I'm having a really good game.

"You know, smart, beautiful, popular, a classic TGFY. Too Good For You, Al," I add, when he looks confused. He's used to it.

"But not for you?" he asks, ignoring the jab.

I consider him. "I'm sorta outside the whole high school food chain at this point, wouldn't you say?" Miss.

He sighs. "Are you gonna ask her out?"

"Ask her out?" I repeat. "No. Bad idea, no." I lean over the table and aim for the red ball. "I mean, where's the therapeutic value in that?" I continue.

"So what's the plan?" he asks me, sounding a bit impatient.

"Simple," I tell him. "I'm going to have fun with her," _Crack._

"Fun," he says sharply. "What does that mean?"

"Fun? Fun means fun, right?" I say, smirking at him. _Crack._ I sink the last ball. "Don't over think it, Al," I advise him, clapping him on the back. I walk over to my bag by the wall. "It's been nice knowing ya," I throw over my back.

"Next week?"

"You know what, Al?" I turn around, grinning. "You've made so much progress here, I think you're ready to face the world on your own, now," I tell him, using a patronising tone.

"Keith?" he begins, sounding concerned.

"Don't worry, Al," I say, backing up, "You can cope," I grab my bag from the wall and walk out the door.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 3 (Natalie)

"_Baaaaaaby!"_

Some guy is yelling his head off, again. I guess he had too much to drink? Everyone's gonna be talking about that on Monday.

I'm sitting beside my best friend, who's sitting beside her boyfriend, at the Brick. The Brick is where we go, without fail, every Friday, every week. We sit there and hang out, gossip, drink, and listen to loud rock music.

"Yo, Anderson! What's up?" the boy who was yelling earlier asks me. It's funny, so I smile.

"Not much, you?" I reply.

"You know, I'm just chillin'," he says. I'm sure he's done a bit more than just _chillin'. _I look around, hoping to spot... there he was. Hugging some other girl. Great.

The crickets are chirping around me. I look across the river, towards the gathering of high school kids, the stupid ones, the pretty ones and the stupid pretty ones, all socializing together in one big group. Without a care in the world. _She's_ down there, with her friends. Laughing, having a good time. By the way she's looking at the new kid; I think she might be interested in him. All the more fun to mess with her. I throw the rock I've been holding into the river below, frowning, trying not to think about how much _I'd_ like to be down there.

_I don't want to be down there._ I half-believe it.

"Yeaah!" "Woohoo!"

Everyone's cheering as we watch two drunken freshman go streaking into the river.

"I can't believe they just did that," I hear myself say, laughing to myself. I was never that crazy as a freshman. I look away.

And come face to face with that boy I saw earlier. I smile.

"Hi," I say, scintillatingly. Why do I feel so awkward around him? Maybe it was because he was _sooo_ hot?

"Hello," he says, smiling at me.

"You're Rafael, right?" I ask. I'd been told at my Key Club meeting that there was a new transfer student, who just so happened to look exactly like the boy in front of me.

"Yeah. You're...?" he asks me.

"Natalie," I reply. He seems to recognize the name.

"Oh. Head of...everything," he teases. So he knew about my crazy schedules.

"I try to keep busy, yes," I say, matching his tone.

"All work and no play?"

"None. Zero," I say.

"So you're working now?"

"Oh, absolutely. It's Key Club," I reply. I sound like I have no life. "We're... checking up on the transfer students, making sure they're adjusting okay," I continue. Now I sound like I'm only talking to him because of it.

"Well, it's been tough," he says seriously, although I know he's joking. He's already fitting in with the popular crowd here, I'm pretty sure he's having no trouble at adjusting.

"I can tell," I say with a laugh, "You've only made about 50 or 60 new friends,"

"What's up, dawg?" some kid walking by greets him.

"61," I finish.

"Yeah," he replies sarcastically, "It's nice to know someone who cares,"

I look down, embarrassed. He just looks at me, smiling. Thunder rolls above us, and we both look up. Groans of "aww, man" come from the people around us.

"Rain," I say, disappointed that my time with him was over.

"Yeah," he says, staring at me. "Rain."

We stand there for a moment, until I hear my friend call to me.

"All right, well... uh, I uh, gotta go. It's been nice meeting you... I'll talk to you later," I say, unable to finish my sentence, smiling awkwardly at him. "Bye,"

"Ciao," he says, watching me as I turn around and leave.

_Slam!_ I close the door of my truck, getting in before I get too wet. I start up the truck, about to back up, before pausing. I smile to myself. Seeing Natalie flirt with Rafael didn't ruin my plans. In fact, it just made the game more fun.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 4 (Natalie)

I got up at 5am again. The weatherman said that it'd be hot today, so I put on my favourite tank top. I looked at myself in the mirror. It was me. Natalie Anderson. Same as always.

"Nat? Breakfast is on the table!" my mom called from the kitchen. I ignored her. I turned around, seeing if it made any difference that more of my skin was showing than usual. My parents wouldn't approve.

"Natalie! Please get him up!" Meaning my brother. I sighed.

"Okay, okay!" I called to her. I walked over to my dresser and pulled on a green sweater before grabbing my bag and leaving my room.

"Zach!" I yelled to my brother as I walked to his door, "Wake up!" I opened his door, only to find his bed made and looking unslept in.

"Didn't come home," I told my mother, rolling my eyes. How typical of him.

When I got downstairs, the rest of my family were already up, my dad and my little sister sitting at the table and my mom bustling about in the kitchen. I grabbed a cup of orange juice, ignoring the breakfast on the table.

"Oh, good morning!" my mom greets me as I walk over to her. She looks at me, and I realize the strap of my tank top is showing. I undo my ponytail and leave my hair down.

"Naty," my dad calls from the table, his nose inside the morning paper, "Mills is a leftie, which means we're going to have to work on your -,"

"Backhand," I finish for him.

"We know, we're gonna spend a whole practice working on it," my mom says. Oh, great. I'm getting really tired of tennis.

"According to my records, last year..." he begins.

"I'm all over it, Dad," I tell him, but he doesn't hear me. I start flipping through my cue cards, studying for French.

"Graduate of Surr. Eleven—"he continues.

"Aces," I finish, again, "Thanks for reminding me," My dad doesn't seem to realize that he's _reminded_ me the same thing for the past two weeks.

"Naty's quicker now," my little sister says, looking up from her colouring.

"If you beat her, you're ranking jumps at least 3 places," my dad, not hearing her.

"If? What's this if about?" my mom says over my dad. Is nobody listening to anyone at all?

I walk over to my dad and kiss him on the head, saying, "Bye," and rubbing my sister on the head.

"Naty, sit down and have some breakfast," Mom says.

"I can't, I've got key club this morning," I say, turning around and heading for the door.

"You need to have some protein, sit down, please,"

I turn around with my backpack halfway on tell her, "I have a bar," meaning the energy bar which will get me out of the house faster.

"A bar is not breakfast," she says, irritated.

"Bye!"

"And as for the states of attraction, the couples are Hobbs, Merton, Carling, Stevens, Brand, Eldridge, Anderson Zetterstrom, Brandon...", Mr Miles reads from his list at the front of the class.

While the rest of the class finds their partner and sits at a bench along the side of the class, I stand in the middle of the room, looking around. Apparently, Zetterstrom decided not to show up for class today. I go over to the only bench left in the room and take out my books. I reach over to grab the beakers that we need and turn around to-

Apparently Zetterstrom decided to show up to class after all.

It was kind of unnerving to turn around to an empty seat and find a brown haired boy grinning at you from the seat.

"Zetterstrom?" I asked.

"Haven't lied to you this far, I'm not gonna start now," he said with a grin. He looked like he was laughing to himself. Weird.

I turned back to my binder and began writing the chemical formulas of the reaction we'd be making in a few minutes. I could feel the boy staring at me, and when I looked up, he was still staring at me, grinning.

"You gonna help?" I ask him while reaching under the desk to grab the safety goggles. He kept grinning and nodded his head. He grabbed a matchbook, turned on the Bunsen burner and lit a match. Why did he do that?

I leaned over and blew out the match while turning off the gas. "We don't need that for this," I tell him, though it should have been obvious.

"Look," he began, "You're not gonna be disagreeable about this because Walt specifically promised me an agreeable lab partner," I looked at him. What was he talking about?

"Walt?" I asked him. He narrowed his eyes at me, while still grinning to himself, and considered me.

"You need to relax," he recommended. What? Okay, now I was becoming a little bit impatient with him.

"Actually, I need to learn this,"

"Because why?"

"Because you need to get a 4 on your exam if you want to get a college credit, in case you didn't know," I said. His nodded and smiled, like he understood.

"And then you'll be ahead of the game, right?"

"Then I can focus on the things I'm good at and keep up my GPA," I inform him. "Okay, so we need to fill this one with sodium nitrate and this one with nitrate..."

"Gotta keep up that GPA," he interjected, looking up and not really paying attention to the beakers.

"Kinda helpful if you ever wanna get a job,"

"A job!"

"Can we just do the lab?"

"I'd love to!" he said, putting on the goggles. "Let's do the lab! Except..." he continued, turning on the gas again, "You're about _ten years_ into the future," He lit a match and smiled.

I was pouring some of the sodium nitrate into another beaker when I noticed smoke and flames coming from the burner. I looked at Zetterstrom. He was grinning at me again.

"We don't need chemistry!" he began, "We need _time travel!"_ What. The.

* * *

"But Mr. Miles, this is _AP_," I told him after class. How someone like Keith (his first name, according to the girl behind me) could get into this class was baffling.

Miles leaned over and whispered, "Keith is actually pretty sharp," He hesitated before adding, "When he applies himself,"

"Okay..." I reply, doubting it. "But we kinda..." I trailed off, shaking my head. He was one of the weirdest kids I'd ever met.

"Lab chemistry?" Miles asked me with a grin, laughing at his pun.

"Yeah," I said, laughing uncomfortably. He looked up from the paper he was grading, looking very serious.

"Try to make it work, okay?" he pleaded. I realized that I wasn't going to be switched partners. I nodded and headed for the door. As I was leaving the class, I heard Keith talking to Miles.

"About this Natalie Anderson thing," he began. I stopped and listened. "Walter, she's a complete _anal-compulsive_ control freak, how do you expect me to work with that?" he continued. _What?_

"But Keith, you were the one..." he whispered.

"I'm kidding," Keith interrupted. I shook my head. _What the hell?_ I left the class. "I'll whip her into shape," he finished, turning and leaving the class.

He turned out of the class and stopped a few centimetres away from me, where I'd been waiting for him. He had that grin on his face again.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" I demanded before he could say anything.

He looked at me and smiled wider. "Who do _you _think I am?" he asked, looking at me condescendingly before grinning and walking around me.

* * *

**_a/n _**_It's been a while, I know. But I started this during winter break, when I didn't have school, but I've been busy. So for the next chapter, there might be a bit of break between this one and chapter 4 (5?), sorry! Semester 2 just started so... Also, I also cut this scene short, as Natalie is supposed to talk to Raf before it ends, but I don't have time to finish it, and I wanted to post something. _


End file.
